After watching the episode "Sounds of Silence", I was very annoyed that the staff reused Celestia's model for Rain Shine without changing a bit the base so she looked more unique and not like a Celestia recolor.
So I drew this quick doodle of Rain Shine and tweaked her a bit, btw, this was in some way (I guess?) inspired by Loppodity's beautiful drawings and interpretations of MLP characters. If you enjoy MLP, I highly recommend that you check out their gallery!

Anyway, I got really carried away with this so, um, let me explain a few things I changed:

# Rounded snout. All Kirins seem to have rounded snouts (even the males) so I think it could be a common trait for their species (and a good way to already differentiate Rain Shine from Celestia :XD: )
# Eye shape inspired in Rarity's. Very round, instead of Celestia's pointy shape.
# Shorter height. She's still taller than the other Kirins, I would say around Luna's height, but not as freakingly tall as Celestia. Rains Shine already stands out, no need for her to be freaking godzilla.
# CURLY HAIR. Most Kirins seem to have really curly manes, but none is as wavy and curly as Rain Shine's. I also added curls to her tail and the hair tufts on her hind legs.
# Longer/more hair, especially the mane.
# Removed the weird yellow scaly-things on her forehead, not sure if they are supposed to look like some kind of crown or what, cause she's the only Kirin that has those. It's weird, I don't like it and I removed it. Instead, I picked their yellow color and added it as a gradient in her head scales.
# Cervine-looking body, or at least cervine legs, cause I think Kirins are naturally elegant and shy creatures (they live in a very remote area and while it's understandable that ponies didn't dare to go there, it seems the Kirins never cared to socialize with other species either).
# Changed the ears.
# Added a gradient to her legs for no other reason except I liked it :D

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Rain Shine © Hasbro
ARTWORK © RakPolaris

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